TOKYO -- U.S. and European hotel companies and buyout funds are looking into Japanese hotels, and they like what they see: a previously closed industry ripe for overseas investment.

Long the exclusive preserve of big domestic corporate groups and chains, hotels in Japan are getting cheaper in price as land values continue their nine-year plunge. At the same time, the hotel business -- never very profitable in Japan -- has been hit by the country's economic recession. Now corporate groups are being pushed by banks and new accounting...